Cheap flux

[wmitty]

I've hesitated asking this because I've never seen it mentioned in the numerous threads regarding fluxing while smelting wheel weights. Has anyone b een using crumbled up dried leaves as a flux material? I was smelting last fall and reached down and crumbled up some dried red oak leaves and dropped them in the melt. Stiring them into the molten metal produced a clean surface in very short order after skimming the clips and dirt. They do produce a lot of smoke as they char, but I smelt outside so no problem there. Anyone tried this? (leaves were bone dry; thanks to the drought).

[waksupi]

nNo need to hesitate! Any thing that is carbon based, is a good flux.

[lastmanout]

Never thought of it, but no reason dried leaves won't work good as sawdust (smokey also) or charcoal. I have begun to use un-oiled sawdust from yellow pine and like it more and more. The boric acid plumbing flux promotes rust in my lead pot, not so with sawdust. Thanks for the info, knowledge is power, ya know:castmine:

[waksupi]

Carpetman uses a mix of used kitty litter, and lanolin. You might ask him for a sample.

[44man]

Leaves smell much better then kitty litter!

[dk17hmr]

When I smelt I walk out to the shop and reach in the 55 gallon drum of wood shavings from the planer.

Heck if leaves work might as well.

[Scrounger]

But Ray doesn't flux with kitty litter, he fluxes with kitties...

[Bret4207]

I've used sawdust, shavings, hay, pretty much any reasonably handy item thats got carbon in it. Cheap is my middle name!

[VTDW]

Who doesn't just love the smell of burning cedar?:drinks:

[Ricochet]

I bought a wax toilet seal ring a while back for lube experimentation, for which I didn't find it too promising. I cut off a little bit of it with a spoon for fluxing, and it works fine.

Previously I was using a squirt of nondetergent SAE 30 oil from an oil can. Worked fine, too.

[LIMPINGJ]

I seem to have an endless supply of Eastern Red Cedar limbs. No cost except calories used to pick one up.
Jim

[Hunter]

I bought a wax toilet seal ring a while back for lube experimentation, for which I didn't find it too promising. I cut off a little bit of it with a spoon for fluxing, and it works fine.

Previously I was using a squirt of nondetergent SAE 30 oil from an oil can. Worked fine, too.

I did the exact same thing. I ran out of lube on night so I went to my service truck (I am a plumber) and grabbed a few wax seals. I did get them to work but it was very messy and harder to work with so I used them to flux my smelting and casting pot. They work great and are tax deductable:mrgreen:
http://i66.photobucket.com/albums/h264/Hunter1911/3_11_7v.gif

[LAH]

Pine pitch also works.........Creeker

[Ricochet]

I've wondered how that might work as a boolit lube.

LLA isn't exactly slick, either.

[Nardoo]

I use dry, crushed eucalyptus bark as there is a big supply of this right outside my workshop. Smells and smokes like a bushfire but seems to work. Thought I was the only looney.

Nardoo

[BigSlick]

I've been using left over walnut and corn cob from when I make a change in the tumblers.

It works well and is an easy way to get rid of lead impregnated media ;)
________
Www.vaporizer.net (http://vaporizerinfo.com/)

[trooperdan]

BigSlick, I also use the corn cob and walnut hull media that is past it's usefullness! And for the very same reasons; I'm extracting the lead contained therein! :) .. and it works well!

[sundog]

I have about three lifetimes worth of unwanted, half used, and broken candles. Add to that three large slabs of paraffin from a lab that used it for sealing core samples, and, well..., got lots of paraffin. I burn off the melt, mixing good, then put a light layer of ash on top from the wood stove. Works good for me. sundog

edit to add: I save the used ash. It's full of slag. It gets mixed in with the next rendering of WW or range scrap.

[yodar]

20 muleteam borax, apply with salt shaker lightly, do nothing, let it melt and fuse into a crunchy top layer. will allow all the dreck to be captured in the glass for discard

odorless and NOT as corrosive as marvelux

(boric acid works even better-if you can find it)

yodar

[Goatlips]

Yodar, if you can't find 20 Mule team Borax, (I can't) check out the hardware store for roach powder and check the ingredients - seems to be pure Boric Acid. Seems it gets in the joints of hard shell bugs and works like emery powder in a crankcase. I'm gonna try it next time I melt some lead.

Goatlips

[carpetman]

Goatlips---20 Mule Team Borax is sold in the detergent section of supermarkets--comes in a box like detergents. You can brush your teeth with it. Don't think boic acid is the same.